REO Lists - A Vital Tool For Every Real Estate Investor

REO lists are an invaluable tool for every foreclosureTypical REO lists will contain information about all
real estate investor. If you are an investor looking toaspects of the property's foreclosure history as well
buy bank-owned foreclosed properties, these lists canas the property's characteristics, to help you make that
serve as your pipeline for leads. Mostdecision. Some of the information contained therein
subscription-based foreclosure REO lists are updatedincludes:
daily or weekly, so you will never have a shortage of1. Property address.
leads to chase.2. What type of property it is. (eg- single family home,
REO, for the uninitiated, stands for "Real Estatecondo, townhouse, multi-unit apartment building, etc.)
Owned". What it basically means is that if a property in3. The year the property was built.
foreclosure is up for sale at an auction but nobody4. Configuration of the property (bedrooms, square
buys it, the bank holding the foreclosing mortgage willfootage, etc.)
automatically take possession of the property, and the5. Unpaid real estate property taxes levied against the
homeowners who dwell therein will be forced toproperty.
vacate it if they haven't already.6. The balance due on the mortgage - this serves as
The advantages of investing in REOs are that youthe basis for the minimum amount the bank would be
don't have to deal with homeowners, you don't havewilling to sell the property for.
to enter into a bidding war at an auction. You can7. When the house was "REO'ed". This is the date that
simply contact the bank and submit an offer tothe last auction took place at which nobody bought the
purchase the vacant property.property and thus the property ownership was
But not every REO property is automatically a dealtransferred to the bank.
worth investing in. You have to research all of the8. CMAs - Comparative market analysis - to give you
details about the property in order to make anan idea of how much the property might be worth.
informed decision about whether or not it would be a9. Date last sold - When was the property bought by
profitable buy: How much would you be buying thethe last homeowner before it was foreclosed, and
property for? How much would you need to spend onhow much was the sale amount at that time.
repairs:? How much would the property sell for after10. The bank's contact information.
repairs?